EAST GREENSBORO (January 10, 2019) – The final national polls are out and for the fourth straight season, the North Carolina A&T football team appears in both. It marks the first time in the Division I-Football Championship Subdivision (FCS)/Division I-AA era which started in 1978 that the Aggies have finished nationally ranked four straight seasons.

N.C. A&T finished the 2018 season ranked 11thin the FCS STATS Media Poll while the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) coaches poll has the Aggies ranked as the 12thbest team in the country.

The Aggies finished the season 10-2 overall and won their fourth Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference title in five years. In addition, the Aggies defeated the Alcorn State Braves 24-22 in the 2018 Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium to claim their third HBCU national title in four seasons.

Reporters and sports information directors voted ranked the Aggies 14thin the preseason FCS STATS poll to open the 2018 season. Similarly, selected FCS coaches around the country also ranked the Aggies 14thin the AFCA poll.

The Aggies opened the season with a 20-17 win over No. 6 Jacksonville State in the FCS Showcase Kickoff in Montgomery, Ala. They followed that up with a 28-23 upset win over FBS opponent East Carolina in Greenville, N.C. The win over ECU marked the third straight year the Aggies defeated an FBS program. N.C. A&T started 3-0 with a convincing win over Gardner-Webb the next week to catapult to No. 4 in both polls the following Monday.

It was the school’s highest national ranking ever surpassing the No. 5 ranking the Aggies earned in 1993 after starting 6-0. After losing two of their next four, the Aggies went on to win five straight to end the season with four of those wins coming away from home.

The Aggies have been nationally ranked in the FCS STATS poll 26 straight weeks while they have been ranked in the coaches poll 49 consecutive weeks. The Aggies run of finishing the season nationally ranked began in 2015 when they finished 21stin both polls. The following season the Aggies completed the season ranked 20thin each poll.

In 2017, the Aggies finished the year 12-0 and were rewarded with the highest finish in school history as the coaches poll ranked N.C. A&T sixth to end the season and the media poll ranked them seventh to close the season.